Can it really be true? That, at the time this album was issued (in the days when albums came out simultaneously on LP and CD), the names of Gardiner, Argents, Kwella, and Thomas were barely known, and that this was the first Bach cantataRead more that Emma Kirkby recorded? Today these artists are so entrenched in our collective consciousness that it seems as if they’ve been established names forever. Seldom in the history of recording has one single album established the reputations of so many artists while simultaneously presenting monumental, unchallenged readings of major works.

I’ve heard many other recordings of the cantata “Jauchzet Gott,” from Elisabeth Schwarzkopf’s wartime effort to versions by Maria Stader, Carole Bogard, etc., but Kirkby most sounds like a boy soprano on steroids, which is probably the type of voice it was written for. I’ve always wondered why she wasn’t a part of the Magnificat, and still don’t really know, but here her presence was not really mandatory, as Argenta and Kwella do a fine job between them. David Thomas is, perhaps, a less glamorous name than the others just mentioned, but I’m here to tell you that he was the real deal, a genuine bass-baritone of a type that hadn’t existed in England since the days of Peter Dawson. I heard him in person, and was amazed at the large size of his voice. No “microphone” singer, he!

Nearly three decades after they were recorded, the voices still ring with unparalleled clarity, the English Baroque Soloists play with a rare combination of sensitivity and energy, and the music of Bach resounds with a spirit and energy that have never been matched. Some recordings just remain amazing forever.